First Round against dirhaval (Alatar). First portion Thursday night (US), followed up Friday night.

Seemingly no draft conflicts. He moved first.

My troll hazard design was meant to point-double greater item decks, of which his seemed like a variant. Opening turn he lost a Rangers of the North attempt, and didn't attempt another faction until after he exhausted.. He moved to Angmar and the trolls pummeled him, slaying Elladan before their Foul Fumes deterred item recovery at Carn Dum. But dirhaval was still dropping Rescue Prisoners and beating me through the deck! I always led in points, but my point-doubling goal wasn't going as planned. In an attempt to deny him factions, I stuck out some necks too far and Alatar claimed an Assassin kill. Two rounds before the end, he was up to 16 to my 19, but perhaps the Assassin delay was still worth it.

My first turn I got Gandalf out with a Noble Steed; I couldn't have asked for better there. But I drew 3/4 my anti-Assassin perms in his first two turns and was terrified about the late game, so had much more choke than usual. Luckily his mix of hazards against my folks weren't especially threatening. Corruption but not enough to stack. A few Slayers, a few Corsairs. He did stiffle my Sapling play for two rounds with undead, but I stuck with it and claimed a kill in the meantime. (I should have snatched it a round earlier, but forgot he halved that turn and let the company tap out, otherwise I may have been able to end the game two rounds earlier.) My dispersal strategy worked perfectly against his Whole Villages Roused, which he used in two consecutive turns when I had nothing to play at the site. His anti-fallen Heart Grown Cold was wasted on my superlow stage setup, though he was very gracious in allowing me to discard one after I switched out of Org after increasing to 5 with it out. I got super lucky with two Noble Steed rolls, tying twice on -1 vs. 9, which probably more than anything allowed me to return to dominance late game.

I grew the White Tree and pushed my Grey Embassy, sensing the end, then played my last main faction and dropped Elrohir with A Chance Meeting, jumping something like 16 points that turn, but I couldn't find a way to exhaust my last card! Luckily in his next turn he finally moved to Goblin Gate where a troll quartet awaited. He canceled the first, got roughed up by the second, but then I got greedy with Mouth and returned another troll instead of a Twilight, and he was able to Many Turns and Doublings out of all the remaining bad knocks. That turn. His last turn, though he needed only 2 points to not get doubled, opted for Haven running vs. the remaining trolls he knew awaited. A 6-0 victory, but an unexpectedly shaky one.


dirhaval accidentally shared in the general chat an indication that I was using Ready to His Will. I also noticed that I forgot to include backup stage resources for increasing card MPs as I had thought of Saturday night. Here's to hoping I face only Minion from here on out, or at least that Gandalf survives!




Second Round against Shapeshifter (Gandalf -> Radagast). Friday afternoon for me; 2.25 hours.

I want to briefly mention the significance of this game to me. Shapeshifter's own website has been a huge boon to me (and I imagine others that have not attended any of the big events) in contemplating metagame dynamics. Besides that, I highly respect his consistent placement in World finals in recent years while playing an avatar besides the dominant Balrog and Fallen Radagast. I went in fully expecting and excited to see him play Fallen (and terrified he would play Fallen Gandalf since I had forgotten to include backup MP increasers), but he didn't! I instead settled for being pleasantly surprised about not just his deck-craft but also his graciousness through severe troll smackdown.

His first draft was Bilbo. My second draft was Ioreth, presumably blocking his copy in round 3, but he had Halbarad as a backup. I moved first.

I again got lucky with Noble Steeds on rounds two and three. It moreover turned out that his hazards did not present much until my final turn. Perhaps my first turn Forewarned is Forearmed (along with the earlier spill that I used Ready to His Will) deterred Assassins? One Sellswords, the only creature I saw, was Quarreled away. With his second turn Mouth he seemed to grab Baduila (rule debate unbroached), who resolutely marched down to Druadan Forest to reroute one of my companies in my final turn. Otherwise, I remember just one early corruption and a final turn Lost in Free Domains on my other moving company. Fearful that there could always be plentiful Assassins left in the land, my friends were sticking together more than usual, and sufficient hand flow was only enabled by his company's aggressive movements. Nevertheless, I needed to Twilight my own Doors to exhaust my deck on his second to last EoT---an absolute necessity to have a chance to call on my next turn, with Grey Embassy as my last card! With his double roadblock that turn, I scraped together exacttly 25 points by having A Chance Meeting with Oin out at Tolfalas.

His resource side was much more interesting. A first turn Bandit Lair set him up for a hypothetical turn 2 dunk, but turn two movement instead became 11/12 Horse Plains card draw for us. I had no early slowdowns for him, choosing to save solo Burt through the Bandit Lair, and focused all my efforts on digging for trolls. With Mount Doom on turn 3 I drew into two more, for seven total (counting pre-permanent Uvatha) plus normal Minions Stir, against his single Concealment. The trolls did their work nicely, Tom killing Bilbo, then after Bert had his shot, returning to steal the ring that Radagast had salvaged from the bones and clothes.* All-star Team Troll was disappointed at not taking more heads, but Radagast and crew were now all wounded. On fleeing back toward Lorien, a lone Sellsword finally managed to finish off Radagast. He'll be getting a pay raise. With no other sages left, Halbarad found himself needing to fill a hat several sizes larger. At this point I decided to start cycling Rolled Down to the Sea, figuring that I could choke his hand that was presumably saving One Ring accoutrements and better protect my lads, while my trolls (Umagaur still in deck) would hopefully naturally return in time to guard Mount Doom. This may perhaps have been the less wise strategy with Enduring Tales out; Halbarad surprisingly survived the trip to Lorien and his crew then stubbornly ignored the Council call to return to Orodruin. Luckily just enough of my vigillant creatures turned up to nab the flour-handed ranger and again wound the rest. An intense 6-0 victory for me.


*Note: an hour after the game (and writing the above), I realized that Tom alone of all my trolls was not playable at Mount Doom. I correctly was counting the uniques against the hazard limit, but didn't think through him lacking Shadow-hold. Checking the logs upon realizing this, had I moved Tom and William up into Bert and Tom's slots, the same roll sequence would have had the same outcomes. William's original attack would then not have happened, but it had done nothing anyway. It would have meant playing a throwaway hazard for the same card draw, and then Bert would have been in hand to attack Halbarad traveling to Lorien. So while I am ashamed by this slip up, it is a comfort to me that in the post-mortem at least it seemed that our game would have ended similarly.

Weeks (months?) later, I happened upon the Gnome ruling from ICE Rules Digest 516 that said Buthrakaur's effect only allows one creature to be played.  However, the wording on the card does not support this ruling, and I have found no evidence that it has been supported by others.




Third Round against shadow and flame (Sauron). Friday afternoon for me; 4 hours.

No draft conflicts. He moved first.

My Fallen Radagast vs. minion deck was designed around speed. Everything was undermined when I lost Celeborn turn 1 to a lucky Cave Drake. You roll the dice, you take your chances. Also other than Radagast and Radagast's black bird, I saw not only no resources to play for three rounds, but no attack cancelation for the first two rounds. Once I finally started moving my item gatherers, he had a Beorning Skin-Changers return with Uvatha and Mouth, shutting them down to only one item. My first Wellinghall play I played Skinbark instead of Treebeard in the threat of Baduila, which lost me a chance for an item play the next turn when I used my other company's second sage to remove Rank Upon Rank for Radagast to feel comfortable taking an Assassin kill with only two allies. I also apparently forgot to put in We Have Come to Kill, and spent most of the game with 16 influence free. Not my best representation.

Luckily, shadow and flame also seemed to have a slow start, and played only Sauron and characters for a couple rounds. It became clear quickly that he was shopping at Withered Heath. My Itangast Ahunt was canceled on first play and his Bane of the Ithil Stone protected against Mouth bringing it back. My occasional drakes were similarly canceled. Even at half my normal deck speed I was winning through the deck, but way too far behind in points. He called turn 7 after wisely hiding Baduila under Gundabad, and my last turn I had to settle at squeezing out a 2/4 loss, which I was pretty satisfied with given the rough start at the beginning.